Narcissus in the nineteenth century: Mary Shelley and Nietzsche

This thesis examines the Narcissus theme and narcissism in the literature of the nineteenth century, focusing on the theme as it is reflected in Mary Shelley's Frankenstein and Nietzsche's Zur Genealogie der Moral, especially the dramatic shift in perspective towards narcissism reflected in these two works. Historical and cultural changes over the course of the nineteenth century that may have led to this reversal are discussed, and it is suggested that the earlier negative view of narcissism is bound with a theological concept of the "self" that is no longer compatible with the understanding of humanity's radically animal nature. A positive view of narcissism in Nietzsche's writing may reflect a vacuum in the traditional understanding of the "self" that demands "self-creation." Narcissistic expression may also represent a liberation from the superstitious awe surrounding the former, more theological concept of the "self" and from the moral constraints of the theology from which this derived. Analysis of the Narcissus theme, beginning with Ovid's version of the tale in the Metamorphoses then moving into the nineteenth-century works, reveals common strands in all the depictions of narcissism discussed. The analysis concludes that while Nietzsche assumes a positive stance towards a narcissistic pose, the self-idealization reflected in his work is as illusory as the negatively reflected narcissism of the earlier versions, and that below the surface of Nietzsche's jubilant tone the philosophical voice of his work seems as haunted by the idealized self-image he has created as the hero of Shelley's novel.